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Cedar Springs, Washington
Cedar Springs is a town in Skamania county, Washington, United States. The population was 3,131 at the 2010 census. Cedar Springs is home to the WBST Company, a privately-owned logging company. History Cedar Springs was founded on 18 May 1880 by four families of German origin – the Weiss, Besenstiel, Schwarz and Töpfer families. These families left the German state of Baden as a group in response to some now-obscure political persecution, seeking new opportunities in the United States. They settled in what was then the Washington Territory and established a cedar-logging business that continues to this day. The original settlers built simple log cabins along the shores of what is now called Cedar Lake. The Old Families named it Salzlake See (“Briny Lake”), apparently due to the similar sound of the older indigenous name for it which was sol’-leks (meaning “angry”). As the town grew, a cemetery was established to the east of the lake. At the time of settlement, many other towns along the Columbia River were trading posts and mining or logging camps. These towns were dominated by single young working men and gambling, liquor and prostitution were widespread. Cedar Springs soon earned a reputation as a place of Protestant temperance and order, not least due to the influence of the matriarchal Waldegunde Weiss. Waldegunde was the widow of the first leader of the expedition to the west although he died in a drowning accident in the town lake during the first winter (December 1880). In the following decades, more families migrated to Cedar Springs, mainly of German, Irish, English and Norwegian background. Despite this growth, the social importance of the four founding families has never diminished and they are still referred to today in Cedar Springs as the "Old Families" or simply "the Germans". Within a generation, the Weiss, Besenstiel, Schwarz and Töpfer families were the largest private landowners in Skamania County. They collectively owned nearly two-thirds of the forested land in the county at one time. In 1900 the families pooled their resources to formally create the WBST Company. WBST enjoyed immediate financial success due to the nation’s demand for timber at a time when Midwest timber supplies were dwindling. When the O-P Railway began to expand in the 1910s, the town proper was relocated away from the lake in favour of a railway station and lakeside sawmill. The town centre, and more specifically the public library, is now located at the site of the original cemetery. A flood in 1917 destroyed the records relating to the whereabouts of the bodies from the original cemetery although it is generally assumed they were reburied somewhere in the surrounding forest. (A small collection of human bones was found in nearby forest in 2015 and local authorities concluded they dated from this earlier period.) During the Great Depression the families sold much of their land to the federal government and it today forms part of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. By the 1930s, the lumber industry in the US was stagnant and in need of economical review. WBST was able to negotiate an exemption to President Roosevelt’s regulatory Lumber Code on Forest Policy permitting them to continuing logging old growth forest without restriction. In 1930, the city celebrated its half centenary during an unseasonably cold early summer. The week-long festivities were capped with the unveiling of an elaborate new fountain at the heart of the town. A newspaper report of the day described the fountain as “Art Deco provocatively reinterpreted through the spirit of our forebears from the Black Forest”. The last night of the half centenary festival was marred by tragedy – three teenagers drowned in the lake (presumably due to the consumption of cheap alcohol followed by swimming in unexpectedly cold water) and another lost a hand in a sawmill accident. The advent of war changed the local economic conditions - the Boeing Company, naval shipyards and the Hanford Works nuclear power plant were all located in the Puget Sound area north of Skamania county. The demand for labour increased and many young men and women from Cedar Springs were called to serve in these industry or in the armed forces. Gertrude Weiss (the head of the Weiss family at that time) lost three sons in fighting in Europe in 1944 and 1945. Her remaining child, Hedda Weiss, is the current mayor of Cedar Springs. After World War Two, there was a dramatic shift in the control of WBST, with the Weiss family becoming the controlling partner, owning 52% of the company in their own right, with the other three families each owning 16%. The reasons for this change were never made public. In 1953, the WBST Company ceased its sawmill operations to concentrate on logging. The original sawmill stood empty for years afterward, becoming steadily more dilapidated. The sawmill was a popular place for high schoolers to gather throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Despite the warnings of parents, young people often explored the interior and a number of unfortunate accidents occurred over the years. In 1965, the state government planned to expand the town through forcible land acquisition in an effort to provide cheaper housing for the state’s growing population and give low-skilled workers better access to job opportunities in the forestry sector. The Cedar Springs council vehemently opposed this plan. Opposition was led by the new mayor, Hedda Weiss, who made full use of her family fortune and financial contributions to the state. In the end, a compromise was reached. Rather than expanding Cedar Springs, the neighbouring town of Cedar Valley was founded to the south. Cedar Valley had little industry or infrastructure of its own but provided a source of cheap labour for the residents of Cedar Springs. The socioeconomic divide continues to this day and is partly reflected in the racial makeup of the two communities. Cedar Springs is almost completely white and European (98%) whereas the diversity of Cedar Valley is more reflective of the state as a whole with significant numbers of African Americans, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders. In the 1970s, Cedar Springs undertook a number of initiatives to promote tourism in the area. The local area was rich with caves, geysers and hot springs and provided a convenient base for hiking and watersports. A summer camp, Camp Alterwald, was established in 1978 and takes place annually on the shores of Cedar Lake. Two dozen barracks-style cabins are located on the camp grounds and are available for rental by holiday makers outside of summer season. The camp motto is Liberis Dare. In 1980, the town planned to celebrate its centenary. Celebrations to mark the occasion were literally overshadowed on 18 May 1980 when Mount St. Helens erupted, causing significant loss of life and widespread destruction in the area (although Cedar Springs itself escaped unscathed). The ‘80s were a boom decade for Cedar Springs. The WBST Company achieved record profits by 1983 and to this day, WBST oversees the transport of cedar and fir along the Columbia River to Portland and Olympia and by truck to Seattle. The design of the distinctive orange and green check-patterned jackets of WBST employees dates from this time. The company built the 1985 Black Forest Mall and Fun Park at the edge of town, serving the mercantile and entertainment needs of the entire county. WBST financed the construction of an observatory in the hills north of town although this was never finished. The original sawmill was renovated and opened to the public in 1990 as a museum dedicated to the story of the WBST Company. While Washington state has proved to be socially progressive in the 2000s and 2010s, Cedar Springs has been slower to shed its conservative values. This may be in part to relatively geographically isolated location; there has been little infrastructure development in the last 20 years to link Cedar Springs to the rest of the state. Education The Cedar Springs area is served by two schools: Cedar Springs North High School in Cedar Springs proper and the Cedar Valley High School in that municipality. High school completion rates are high, although students enrolled at Cedar Springs North are more likely to complete their studies than those attending Cedar Valley. A low number of graduates seek higher education compared to the rest of the state. WBST offers a range of graduate programs for high-school leavers and is the largest employer in the community. Most young people expect to find work either in the administrative side of the business (for Cedar Springs residents) or in the more physically demanding side of logging and transport or related service industries (for Cedar Valley residents). Law Enforcement The Skamania County Sherrif's Office is located in Cedar Springs. Sheriff Lancelot "Lance" Schutter is a long-time resident of the town. Local Media A weekly, independent newspaper, the Cedar Leader, is published in Cedar Springs under the drection of editor Robert Morely Snr. Health Services Primary care in Cedar Springs is provided by Cedar Springs General Hospital although several general practioners and specialists also have offices in the town.